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The Prime Minister guarantees that the measures he announced last Saturday are the “Proportional” At the moment the country lives, but wants to be able to have room to advance to the curfew in high-risk counties. At the end of the Council of Ministers it had said that the constitutional framework did not allow the measure, so it ended up asking the President of the Republic to enact a state of emergency.
What the Government intends is the opening of a state of exception that allows it to have greater radius and (legal) security of action to implement this and other measures. But the curfew was clear, it will happen. That is what the prime minister means when he talks about limiting circulation “at certain times of the day and days of the week.” “What is a curfew if circulation is not restricted during a certain period of the day or certain days of the week?”, explains the source of the Executive to the Observer after the explanation of Costa in Belém.
In fact, after asking the President of the Republic to declare a state of emergency, António Costa explained precisely that “the restriction on circulation between municipalities ends tomorrow, but there are other limitations on circulation that are possible.” And he began to give some examples, which show what is in the Government’s plans: “The limitation of circulation at certain hours of the day and days of the week can be determined, it can be justified in general or in time, when some events are associated that need to be restricted ”.
It details that this limitation will only be for high-risk counties (currently there are 121), after specifying that it is not night events that are the objective of the measure, but rather “large family events on the weekend”. are that they have been at the root of the increase in cases, he said. On the subject, what never referred to as “curfew” -measure that he assumed was the one that caused the most disagreement with the parties heard last Friday- Costa said that what he has foreseen is that “it has different dimensions and application periods.”
“Nothing will prevent it from happening between certain hours of the day, for example between 11 pm and 6 am, with exceptions for those who are working. We can always impose this limitation, “he said, although at some point he assumed that” decreeing a mandatory curfew on weekends seems like great violence and excess. “
This solution was discussed in the Council of Ministers but, according to a government source, António Costa decided that in the statement at the end of that meeting he would no longer talk about this option to avoid this being the only message that finally fades. When, in March, he asked the President of the Republic for a state of emergency, the Prime Minister did so on the same day he decided to advance to that level, in the Council of Ministers, triggering the process shortly after, with an audience in Belém. which ended after a statement by the President of the Republic to the country. This time it took two days to advance.
It was not only among parties with parliamentary seats that the idea of a curfew was not unanimous. Still this Monday morning, in an interview with Radio Observer before the PR / PM meeting, the Minister of Higher Education Manuel Heitor He pointed to the state of emergency as a situation that could “be advantageous to, on occasions, facilitate the adoption of measures.” And the curfew? “I don’t think it’s a necessity. It is being seen in other areas, such as Spain, that it did not work, ”he argued.
This Tuesday at six in the morning the limitation of circulation between municipalities ends, a measure that was challenged by Chega, who came to present a precautionary measure to suspend the measure. It was not accepted by the Supreme Administrative Court, which did not recognize the legitimacy of the party to proceed with this action. The action brought by a lawyer, on the other hand, was read by the same court in terms of its content and the decision, according to a source from the Executive, argued that the restrictions taken are justified. The government marked the decision in an arc, but at the same time wanted to have constitutional support for this and other measures.
This is what António Costa calls “State of emergency of a preventive nature”. Different, in its content, to the one that was in force between the end of March and the beginning of May of this year because of the pandemic. It will be, Costa guaranteed, “much more limited in its purpose”, compared to that time, but “it will probably have an extension much greater than the 15 days allowed by the Constitution. From the outset, we must assume that it is periodically renewed “, Costa warned” without drama. “
“It is a critical moment” and Costa hopes that this declaration of a state of emergency can also serve to “reinforce public awareness of the health emergency we are facing.” And, for now, it should clear up the “legal doubts” about four concrete points:
- Limit the movement of people between municipalities;
- Eliminate doubts about the legitimacy to impose temperature control measures either in access to workplaces or in access to public places;
- In order to “strengthen the terms in which the State can resort to the request for resources and resources in health, either through the private or social sector”;
- To avoid any doubt that the Government “can mobilize human resources, both public and private, that are in memory because they are in a risk sector, it can be used to reinforce the efforts of public health teams” and others . The idea is “to ensure that the state can change the functional content” of certain activities, the prime minister explained.
In view of this and although the content of the decree that the President is going to present to the Assembly of the Republic is not yet known, it is already possible to contemplate more comprehensive measures on temperature control in some places, as well as the request for means by of the private and social sectors. , as well as human resources, “that is, from the Armed Forces or public officials”, to participate in follow-up actions.
As for the moment when a new constitutional state of exception will open, it is a decision that is in the hands of the President of the Republic, and the Prime Minister has already said that he hopes that this declaration will not be “excessively deferred in time.”
